Monday, December 3, 2007
Considering Feedback....
Now that you are in the process of working towards that final piece, what has been helpful to you in terms of feedback? In my conference with Ronnie, she asked me to give her "constructive criticism" instead of just telling her how wonderful her words were. I hope I was able to do both! We need to consider these words and the feedback that was most helpful when we are conferring with our students. It is walking that fine line between everything being wonderful in the name of high self-esteem combined with the rigor involved in asking them to be all they can be as writers. We are here to encourage and to teach. Our job is to know and "read" our students in terms of where they are in their processes. How much baggage is our own when it comes to asking our students to take that next risk? This is one of the most difficult and yet one of the most powerful things we do as writing teachers. How did you feel being on the other end?
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7 comments:
FUNNY! It truly felt funny to be on the other end. I was so excited…the kid in the candy store kind of feeling. I had a hard time reading my poem at first because all I could do was laugh…I felt like a child. Being on the other end was great. I was nervous. Many thoughts ran through my head. Will she like it, did I meet her expectations, and did I meet my own expectations? The best part for me was that I already knew the answers to my own questions. Do our kids know too? If not, how do they acquire this skill to look at their own writing and know what is missing and what they can do to make it better? My first step in this process will be sharing my conference experience with my class with the intent to have them ready with questions for me as I confer with them. I already showed and read my poem prior to completion so they can see my process and now I am going to share my questions, revision and completion process. I am SOOOO excited. As I shared during my conference, I know I have more work to do in the area of writing but I can’t wait until Brooke is old enough to read the poem I wrote for her on her own and say wow mommy you wrote this…or maybe not…my hope is that she will learn to love writing before she is almost thirty…SCAREY!
I can definitely relate to the kids when being on the other side of the conference. When sharing my work, I just was sooo proud of it. I really hadn't thought I COULD do poetry and now here I was ready to share 4 poems. I, without any bias, I thought they were darn good! There was this sense, like the kids have, that its perfect and I'm afraid she's going to say I need to change something. Which I would do for her, but deep down I don't believe it needs done! I wanted to write "THE END" in huge capital letters at the end. No revising or editing needed. First draft is perfect. :) Ugh. That makes me wild when they say that!
I shared my work with several people. I think the relationship you have with the person makes such a difference too. Sharing with family is just fun because you share the memories, the content. Its really a content conference. But sharing it with colleagues focused on style is more a construct conference. I noticed that it really helped me build my self-esteem to laugh over the content first, then chat about how I got that effect. Its like Reggie had said in her book, you really have to do two conferences, a content and a grammar piece.
One of the hardest parts of my writing conference was actually reading my words out loud. It was during my conference that I realized that I had read my piece many times but always to myself. I seemed even more revealing to put my quivering voice with such personal information.
It was important to me to hear what made my poem work but also suggestions that would make my writing better. I needed to be sure that if I am to read this to a group of people, it is a quality piece. After conferring, when I had the time to reflect, I did feel more confident about my final piece. I felt a sense of pride for the writing and the writing process. I felt like a writer!
As B.J. shared, I also will look at how to help my students think about questions that they can bring to our writing conferences. By having questions prepared, there was a comfortable starting place and some structure to our conversation. The questions the students bring to their conference, can tell us where they are in their processes.
I still feel myself having that nervous smile as I read my own writing out loud- I like it, I think it's good, but will others? It's still a bit scary to read something I've written and share it with others- it's very personal. I was having trouble coming up with a title for my piece that really captured what I was feeling about the writing. Tomasen suggested I take one line out of the poem and use it for my title- so simple! I can do that! Then I looked through the poem again and still wasn't completely sure which one I would pick and through more discussion I found the one line that really stuck with me as I went about writing the poem. It was such a great feeling- I felt like it was finally complete! I love having conferences because I don't feel like I'm being told what I'm doing wrong- I feel like I'm being taught, lead, helped in ways that can make my writing better. That's how I want my students to feel! I agree with BJ and Ronnie that it was helpful to have some questions for the conference and I also want to work on this with my students. Jenn- I'm so glad you said that about the two kinds of conferences- I had forgotten that part from our book last year but it is so true!
It was awkward being on the other side of the conference. I think we forget how vulnerable we ask kids to be every time they put their ideas out there. Maybe I can learn from my students because they seem to do this with such ease.
I didn't! Before conferencing, I had anxiety over whether my writing would sound "grown-up" enough. Then I started to obsess about the questions I'd prepared. Did my questions allow for constructive criticism as well as positive feedback? I wanted to know what people thought, but didn't want to leave the conference feeling more anxious about sharing my writing.
Like Jenn, I went into that last conference with a sort-of "I'm done" feeling. What if I needed to change? What if I needed big changes? There's so much of me in that piece of writing. Could I make changes and still keep my writer's voice?
I agree that the more comfortable that you feel with someone- the easier it is to take advice. I think I did feel a bit nervous sharing my poem with Michelle but not as much as if I shared with someone that I am not as close to. I think it was easier for me because she understands why I do not want to write about personal things-despite how they sneak in most of the time. I was a bit nervous reading my poem out loud to Tomasen but I remember thinking when we were done that if I can make my students feel that important and that my work is important too- then I am certainly on the right track to a successful conference. I always to get my students to appreciate what they write and to take pride in their work. I love conferencing with them as the year goes on because they start to consider me an edit magnet and I really do not have to say anything! It is magic! I always tell them that I must have magic qualities or something! Reading your work out loud or hearing someone else read it is powerful and enlightening!
I love to wait a little while to blog my thoughts because everyone does them for me! My first thought was, "I like this, what if Debi doesn't?" I had put so much of myself into writing this piece and had written and rewritten a number of times. I think I would have thrown in the towel if Debi hadn't started with something positive! And of course, she didn't let me down. Debi knows me, how I feel about my kids, writing, (pets), etc. and that made it easier for me to share. Also, knowing her made it easier to confer with her. I think it is so important that we keep this in mind with our students. Take the time to get to know them, earn their respect, give them the authority to write and rewrite. I didn't use every suggestion that Deb gave me, I did use some. However, in the end it was still my writing, I had to be the one who was happiest with it. (It seems kind of funny to me, the entire time I was working on this, I did not consider the grade I would get. I have only been concerned with what I thought of it and what my audience-the kids- would think of it! I think that might be the first time in my life that has ever happened to me. I still hope I don't get an F, but I'm happy with my piece!)
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